LaRousse City
by Maudlin Matryoshka
Summary: Drew-centric one-shot with the theme "Green" centered around the beginning of Drew's journey.  Brief May appearance, implied Contestshipping.


A/N: Inspired by Drew never talking about LaRousse City as his home in the anime. If anyone knows in which episode it is mentioned that his home is LaRousse, please tell me! :)

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><p><span>LaRousse City<span>

One girl always disliked the color green.

_But how could she dislike her cousin Drew?_

It was icky, and harsh, and never really looked good on anything— especially her. Any type of vegetable tasted disgusting—exactly as she thought the color green would taste. People turned green when they were about to be sick. Grass-types disliked her. And her math book was green—more than enough reason to hate the color.

_Drew's hair shone in the early morning sunlight, always perfectly arranged. She sat with him on the edge of the bridge, legs hanging past the guard rails._

"_See out there?" he said. "There's something out there. No, everything. All the beauty in the world. And as soon as I can, that's where I'm going to be. In Nature, in the world. After all," he said, and gave a sly smile, tugging on a lock of his hair, "it's already claimed me. I'm green!" _

But when gentle rays of sun filtered down through perfectly sculpted leaves, it provoked in her and sense of wonder, and of fear.

If she were to be completely honest, green scared her. It represented a wide open world, a world where you were at the mercy of whatever nature decided to throw your way. Here in LaRousse, she was protected, well looked after. Her father, the mayor, told her so every night. She never had to venture outside unless she wanted to, and why should she? Everything she needed was right here at home.

_Thunder shakes the skies overhead, drenching the high-tech paradise. Patrol bots float down the streets, advising the passer-by to seek shelter, and covering tourists with umbrellas. When lightning strikes, she yelps and buries her head in her mother's long skirt. Her mother takes her hand, and guides them to a transit stop, where they watch the rain._

"_Mama! Where's Drew?"_

_After a minute's frantic search, they find her cousin in the middle of the street. He is staring transfixed at the sky, a look of awe on his small face, and is surrounded by angry drivers. Her mother gives a small cry, and hustles the hypnotized boy back to the safety of the sidewalk._

"_Drew, darling, what were you doing out there? You could have been run over! Don't scare me like that!" her mother fusses._

_He lets her hug him, and attempt to dry him, but doesn't listen to a word she says. Instead, his eyes shine, as if they gathered the raindrops. _

"_Did you see that?" he whispers to her._

"_See what? You being dumb? The patrol bots? The cars honking at you?"_

_He stares at her a moment, and is disappointed. "No. I meant the sky." _

Green was hopelessly endless fields of grass, green was trees her weak body had no hope of climbing, green was undomesticated plants and leaves, alien to her daily surroundings. She had always been an indoors girl— the kid who lives for rainy indoor recesses, burns constantly in the sun, was never fast enough to beat anyone in a race, and went to bed each night with the burn of LCD pixels in her eyes. There was nothing green about her. Being outside felt unfamiliar, unknown, outlandish. She'd never been truly exposed to this world, only viewing it through the comforting glass walls of the city.

Yet, when she stared out the windows, she saw trainers walking by. They were comfortable—green was their friend, and so was the city. Every day they traveled through green, and earned its respect. Green had no respect for her: whenever she ventured out into it, it would tease her, bait her, and reject her, fully beaten.

So hungrily, day after day, she watches green and the ones who know it best go on adventures. She is jealous—but green's just not her color.

"_Let's go for a walk," Drew says, pacing restlessly. "I want to talk to you, you know, without all of—" He waves his hand in the air, making a disgusted face. He means the security cameras._

"_The rose gardens have started blooming," she offers._

"_Perfect."_

_They ride the elevator and walk to the science center gardens in silence. Once they are surrounded by roses, Drew lets out a long sigh, as if he's been holding his breath, and hums contentedly. She considers warning him that there are surveillance cameras here too: one blinking in the tree, one hidden as a rock, but decides it will only unnerve him._

"_What do you want to talk about?"_

_He puts a finger to his lips and smiles. _Just relax for a minute, _he mouths, then turns back to a yellow rose bush and breathes in its scent. The garden is in its full glory now, with the morning dew still clinging to the flowers and reflecting their colors. There is every type and color of rose here, one bush to represent each species arranged along a maze path leading away from the main science complex. What had started as a genetics experiment resulted in one of the world's finest gardens. It would be open to the public next month, but her father encouraged her to come now, when the roses were new. Something about the smell..._

_Drew stoops to pluck a bud from the undergrowth of a bush, and presents it to her with his characteristic flourish._

"_This is a real beauty," he murmurs. She takes it gingerly and examines it: the petals have two colors, mostly yellow with delicate pink tips. It's small, not fully open, but it already outshines the other flowers on the bush._

"_It's lovely," she says. "We'll put it in water later."_

"_Mmmmm...I like the red ones best, though."_

_She laughs. "Of course you do! They're more dramatic!"_

_He smiles._

"_So..."_

"_Oh, right." He looks away and turns back to the rose bushes, feigning nonchalance. "I'm leaving, you know."_

_She glances at the cameras, judges their angles, and takes his hand, seeming to indifferently pull him away._

"_What—cameras?" he hisses, incensed. She nods, mutely, and pulls him behind a particularly large purple rose bush. She lets him go, and they stand casually. She nods towards the nearest camera, now yards away, knowing they still have to play it safe._

"_I'm leaving pretty soon," he says in a whisper, barely moving his lips. "I have almost everything I need."_

_She responds in the same way. "Wait, _you? _As in, by yourself?"_

_He doesn't need to answer. She knows._

"_You're off to see the world beyond LaRousse. Nature, who claimed you."_

_He gives her a tiny grin. "You remember."_

_She looks away bitterly. "I remembered because I was afraid of it happening."_

"_I wanted to say goodbye."_

"_Well, forget it," she says as sharply as a whisper will allow._

"_What?" _

"_I'm telling your parents as soon as we get home."_

"_You wouldn't! Come on, we're not little kids anymore." It was true: at 15 and almost-15, they felt much, much older than the 8-year-olds that sat on the bridge joking about Drew's hair._

"_I would, Drew. You can't go out on your own. Your parents refused to let you go on a journey."_

_Drew had come over only two weeks before, red-faced and yelling in frustration after fighting with his parents for hours on end. They flatly refused him a Pokemon journey, and nothing would change their minds. He was heartbroken, and had stayed with her for 3 days before his parents demanded that he come home._

"_Well, I don't care. They can't stop me. At fifteen, I'm legally allowed to start my own journey without consent."_

"_I don't think—"_

"_Don't you get it?" he strains. "Don't you see? I _have _to leave. This city, this place, it's—" He throws up his hands in frustration. "Stifling. Smothering. Suffocating. Like that rose," he jabs a finger in it's direction. "Not fully bloomed, because there's just no _light." _She sighs at his dramatic illustration, but he gives her a pleading look. "I'm meant to be _out there, _in the real world, breathing unfiltered air and swimming in untreated water. I'm meant to be _living. This. Is. Not. LIVING!" _He punctuates his last sentence forcefully, making her back off._

"_And so what am I? Dead? Just asleep?" she says sarcastically. "You can't do this, Drew."_

"_And why not?"_

"_Because...because...!" She struggles, trying to cast about for a reason for him to stay, anything besides..._

"_Why don't you want me to go?" he asks more kindly, starting to understand. _

"_Because it's you, going off on an adventure without me, being swallowed up by that big beautiful world of yours, and there's no glass walls to protect you..."_

"I'm ready," he says evenly. She looks at him, his strong body, sharp mind, and free spirit, and believes him. She sighs, crosses her arms over her chest, pouts...and surreptitiously feels around in her pocket.

"_What kind of trainer will you become?" she says, knowing the answer. The longer they keep this up, the more suspicious his parents will be when they review the tape, as she knows they will once Drew is gone, so she needs to hurry..._

"_A coordinator, of course. To show off the beauty of my pokemon...wow, it'll be..." he shakes his head in amazement. She finds what she is looking for._

"_Anyway, this is goodbye. I won't be able to come see you before I leave." He shuffles awkwardly. "I hope I can meet up with you someday."_

_She quickly pulls him into a hug, carefully angling their bodies away from the camera, and puts her lips up to his ear. "I believe in you. Go out there, and become Top Coordinator. I know you can." She slips the object from her pocket to his. "This is all you need."_

_He reaches down, feels it. She sees a flash of white and red. "That _is_ what I need," he says, chocking up a little. He hugs her fiercely. "Thank you."_

"_Just do something for me...when you come back, and you _are _coming back, bring me a little piece. Something green. Real-world nature."_

"_Consider it done."_

_She gives him a kiss on the cheek, and he steps away, stumbling at first, then gaining confidence, grinning from ear to ear as he realizes he is free. He waves once, then runs off, disappearing into the roses. _

_The next day, his parents report him missing._

Now, at 17, it's been two years since she's seen or heard him anywhere but the television screen. His parents have sent him message after message, begging him to come home. He hasn't sent a word in response, and surprisingly, they haven't forced him. His mother occasionally will watch his contests on TV, and cheer quietly for him, but his father never will acknowledge his accomplishments, preferring to let him slide from the family memory. She is disgusted with them both.

Her own family hasn't been much of a consolation recently either. After two years of soul-searching, she had finally decided to go on a journey of her own. She sought the blessing of her parents only a month ago...and got a slap in the face for her trouble. But she can't just run like Drew did: it would break her parents' hearts, something she's not willing to sacrifice. So she stews at home, starting to know the suppression Drew always felt so keenly, and wondering how long she can take it.

Speaking of Drew...she grabs a bowl of chicken soup out of the microwave, and settles herself on the couch, aimlessly lapping at it. Drew won a contest not too far from LaRousse that was televised this morning, and the local station promised an interview with him later in the day. It starts out normally enough: he's always asked the same questions about his pokemon and battle styles. He answers seriously, but smiles every so often to keep it light. He's good with the cameras. Next to him, his Roserade, his first pokemon and caught in the pokeball she gave him, poses for the reporter as he admires her.

"Last question, Drew," the reporter enthuses, queuing the camera back to Drew's face. "Where are you heading next? There are rumors you're heading back to your hometown—LaRousse City."

She froze, spoon halfway to her mouth.

He grimaces involuntarily at the reporter calling LaRousse his home, and tries to hide it. "Um, well, that is where I'm headed. Guess I'll see you there." He gives the reporter a winning smile, a wink, and walks away. The reporter begins to speak again, but in the background, she can see Drew meet up with someone...a girl...

The doorbell, somewhere downstairs, rings with three deep booms. She jumps to her feet, letting the bowl of soup fall the the floor, and races down the grand spiral staircase of her home. Technically, her family employs helpers who generally answer the door, but after that interview...

_You're being ridiculous. There's no way he could be here that fast. He doesn't even have a Pidgeotto...probably just some maintenance man..._

But when she throws open the door, panting, she comes face-to-face with the biggest yellow-tipped-with-pink rose she's ever seen.

"Drew!" she gasps, and he throws his arms around her and hugs her so hard she thinks he cracks a rib.

"Hello to you too!" she gasps, hugging him back, then pulling away. "Hey, you're taller!"

"So are you," he says with a grin. Behind him, a female voice giggles.

Drew grins again. "I want you to meet someone." He reaches behind him, takes the hand of a pretty brunette girl, and kisses it. "This is May."

May smiles. "I've heard so much about you I feel like I already know you!"

"Wait..." she says, head spinning. "Don't tell me this is..."

"May Maple, Princess of Hoenn." Drew affirms, staring at May with unabashed affection.

"Wow..." she murmurs, staring at the superstar.

"Oh, please," May laughs, embarrassed.

She notices May is holding something behind her back. Drew catches her looking, and squeezes her shoulder. "Let's show her our present, May."

May brings the present into view. It is three small branches, tied together by a red ribbon, just starting to bud with new leaves. She takes them wonderingly.

"I brought you a piece of nature," Drew says. "3, actually. One for May, one for me..."

She catches on, and her face flushes in excitement. "One for me?"

"And one for you, if you want it. Come with us, and we will make a team of coordinators beyond your wildest dreams. We will be the best that's ever lived!"

"Yes!" she cries. "I will!" And he picks her up and spins her around, laughing, May laughing too, then they all come together, Drew in the middle with an arm around each, and she's more happy than she can stand because finally, after all this time, maybe she can have her own, green, adventure.

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><p>AN: R&R please.


End file.
